waking baby for feeds?

William (just over 3 wks old) has been going anywhere from one - four hours between feeds during the day, depending on if he's awake/sleeping.....but he's still bad sleeping at night, I think as he's had long sleeps during the day?! Last night had last feed at 10 (woke him at 9.30 for it), then straight to sleep til 1.10 but then awake til 5.10! Had both boobs, 2 bottles of expressed (both with just under 3oz in!) before he went back to sleep properly! Then up again at 8.

So today I've been making sure he's not had a long sleep as much a possible...talking to him, playing with him on his mat etc and waking him once 3 hrs has passed regardless of when he fell asleep, so has been fed at 8.30, 11.30, 1.30, 3.30, 5.45 and has dozed in between but not for more than an hr and a half. I woke him for the 1.30 feed, but he's asked for the others.

Is this type of approach (ie no long daytime nap) likely to help the night feeding/waking? Or am I been mean in waking him?

To be honest i thought babies as young as 3 weeks were supposed to sleep the majority of the time and when Ellis was that little i didn't ever wake her for a feed i just let her dictate things BUT she didn't really wake in the night for any length of time so its maybe not fair to compare. Lack of sleep is really difficult but its a bit early to worry that its a routine, try to make sure you get a sleep during the day when baby sleeps and make sure when he wakes at night that its not exciting in the least and hopefully he'll get the hint that night time isn't playtime xx good luck

We've been making sure lights low, no talking to him etc at nights compared to opposite during the day to help him notice a difference, hoping it'll start to help soon! Not worried about starting a routine as such yet, but just want/need less night-time wakefulness! Waking up and feeding him during the night is fine, its just the 4 hours of being awake then thats so draining!

I know its still early days yet.......maybe I'm just being too impatient!

I'm sure he'll start learning the difference between night and day soon, especially if you keep the lights low etc at night. I tended to offer a feed after 4 hours if Aisling hadn't woken up but to be honest they sleep most of the time at that stage and if she wanted to sleep, nothing was going to wake her! I did work on the theory though that if she didn't wake for enough feeds during the day, she'd look for them at night instead but that's just the way we did it.

I would never wake a sleeping baby! I know I had to wake mine up to 10 days old cos when they are just born they do not know if they are hungry or not. Ironically thats when my baby stopped sleeping so long lol

It will take a few weeks hun and slowly he will start sleeping more at night and for longer periods etc xx
I wouldnt wake him, i had the opposite prob and he was always awake
Caine still doesnt sleep through now